


Legacy Andromeda

by ScrawledScript



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Drack is my favorite grandpa, F/M, Multi, Sibling Love, TIME TO FIX THAT, im still not over Reyes, or anything really, there's not enough reyes/ryder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-10-29 20:17:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10861329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScrawledScript/pseuds/ScrawledScript
Summary: She came to Andromeda to start over, to change the perception of being a Ryder. It was supposed to be a chance to start over, to build a new name for herself, and for Scott. Instead, Habitat 7 happens. Thrust into a job she never wanted or trained for, Sara has to fight to measure up to the impossible standard that was Alec Ryder, graded on a scale she can't understand by people she will never impress. But her last name is Ryder, and Ryders get the job done, whatever it takes.Reyes/F!Ryder.





	1. Boarding Call

**Legacy Andromeda: Boarding Call**

 

Her fingers shake something terrible, knocking the small porcelain elephant over, further into the box. It disappears beneath the datapads, and she decides it’s safe enough there, and places the next item in: a small shard- it had been part of a Prothean bowl or vase, and it was the only thing she had ever taken off a dig site. Sara runs her thumb over the rough edge of it, smiles, and then carefully wraps it in cloth and tucks it securely in the corner of the box.

She’d made some sacrifices, things she couldn’t fit into the box: her mother’s sweater, her painting set, the hat she wore to Scott’s first baseball game. There were more important things, and the weight restrictions were clear.

Sara closes it with a sigh, wiping her eyes, though she hadn’t started to cry yet. She could feel it coming, though. No time for crying, though, as Scott knocks on the door- not to ask permission, but merely to announce his entrance.

“Hey, Scott. All packed?” She hopes she sounds chipper and excited. She was, of course she was, they were going to the fucking Andromeda galaxy. But she looks at her bedroom, with her entire life packed in boxes and left on the floor, and _oh god_ they’re going to the Andromeda galaxy.

Her brother sits on her bed, fingers idly picking at the sun-print sheets. He finds a loose string and pulls it, and she almost tells him to quit. But tomorrow they’ll be six hundred years away, so she keeps her mouth closed. His eyes land on their mom’s sweater, and he brings it to his face and takes a deep breath. It doesn’t smell like mom anymore, since Sara wears it all the time, but they both find comfort in the memory of the scent.

“It feels like I had to cut off an arm to fit everything in that box.”

“Yeah.”

There’s nothing else to say on the matter, really. They’re losing everything, and while she didn’t consider herself a material person, she didn’t appreciate the loss. She tries to focus on anything else, but how could there be anything else to think about?

“You want to dye your hair?” Scott asks, picking up one of the little boxes near the head of her bed. There’s six different colors- she couldn’t decide which would be best, so she got them all, because after tomorrow credits weren’t really going to matter.

She nods, “Yeah, I figure, if I’m gonna be a corpse for six centuries, best to be a good looking one.”

“You’re gonna need a lot more than hair dye if-” He stops when she hits him with the closest pillow she can grab. The hit dissolves into giggles, which becomes near hysteric set of laughter, which dies when they both rethink the word _corpse_. Today could be it, and they might never know.

“You wanna do one, and I’ll do another?”

“Deal, but I call purple.”

So the two take turns bleaching and coloring each other’s hair, until Sara’s is a ashen grey and Scott’s is more pastel than punk, but still purple. They talk about anything but Andromeda, anything but the Initiative and their impending stint as meat popsicles. They talk about growing up, about old trouble they used to get into, and how they used to get out of it.

“I think I got some on your amp.” Scott says, wiping at the back of her neck, “Don’t think it got _in_ though.”

Her hand reaches around and her pinky dips into the amp, “Mm, doesn’t feel wet.”

“Gross.”

“You do know that’s not, like, my open spinal cord, right?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m _pretty_ sure it _is_ , but-”

“Scott it’s been there for six years.”

She doesn’t have to look to know the face he is making. Scott was also biotic, but not enough to have warranted getting an amplifier. The most he could do was make the air a little staticky. He found the idea of an amp disconcerting, to say the least.

He’d taken a more mechanical approach to their Alliance work, and really hadn’t seen much of her amp. She kept her hair down, usually, though it was now too long to do that by regulation standards. But he’d also gotten the SAM implant, too, so who was he to judge?

“So, I was thinking.”

“Every time one of us says that, it ends up bad. But I’m listening.” Sara said, leaning her head back to look at him.

“We’re going to be asleep for a while, right? Do you think that if we stayed up all night, we’d wake up in Andromeda as tired as we went in? Or would that have been enough sleep?”

“I think the stimulants they use to wake us up would probably be enough.” Sara reasons, “But I’m curious. What’d you have in mind?”

“I mean, this is it, right? Our last night in the Milky Way. Let’s do something _crazy_.”

“We already have matching tattoos, Scott. Plus we can’t eat or drink anything after midnight. We’re space gremlins, Scott.”

“C’mon, there’s gotta be something we can do.”

Sara raises an eyebrow, and Scott snaps his fingers.

“Ah, got it.”

* * *

   
_It_ is the longest night of her life, one that they both swear never to mention or reference or talk about again.

It got weird.

* * *

They bring their boxes and check them in, moving together and slowly. Sara watches them scan the contents, weigh them, tag them (Ryder, Sara/ Ryder, Scott in big bold letters) and toss them into a larger crate. On the other scanner behind them, someone is having to empty their box and throw something out. She doesn’t bring herself to look, not sure she can stand someone else’s heartbreak. It had been hard enough deciding what to pack and what to leave, forgotten.

They run one last medical check, and then they board the _Hyperion_. It’s a beautiful ship, really, a good place to live six hundred years in. Easily the most expensive hotel she’s ever stayed in.

Scott gives an appreciative whistle, “Inside’s just as pretty.”

“We’re supposed to meet dad in SAM node.”

“Sara, you gotta stop and smell the roses. We’ll have plenty of time to find him, but not much time to explore, c’mon.”

They end up in cryo bay, blinking at the med-techs who look up at them and then check the time. Too early for people to be iced, she can see them think, isn’t it? Behind them is the first row of cryopods, and the sight of them makes her stomach churn.

Scott puts his arm around her waist, “Sorry, just looking around.”

One of the doctors nods and the rest go back to preparations. For a second, she wondered who was going to be the last person in- and who froze them? Someone else, who wasn’t going? Or were they automated enough that you could just climb in one and, poof, you’re frozen.

They work back to SAM node, Scott forcing her to slow her walking pace and take time to actually look at the ship. Yes, she agrees, it’s pretty, but dad is waiting. She is graced with an eyeroll and a snort.

Scott stops short, “Oh god.”

“What?”

“Sara, we’re leaving chocolate behind.”

One blink. Two.

“Sara, please tell me we’re bringing seeds for-”

“Did you just now think of this?”

“I suddenly don’t know if I can do this. Sara, _chocolate_.”

“I know.” She pats his shoulder, laughing at his overdramatic despondency. The specifics of what she was leaving behind hadn’t really hit her, either, but chocolate was pretty high on the list. Truly, a tragedy.

“Worst trip ever.” Scott says glumly.

“And we haven’t even left yet.” Sara rolls her eyes and then pulls him along. SAM node was just ahead, and she was anxious to be underway. There were still nineteen thousand other people to load onto the boat, but they’d be stored in waves. The Ryders were to be among the first.

* * *

Alec was a hard man to read, at any given time, but she can tell he’s glad to see them. He doesn’t exactly relax, but he gives her and Scott a nod and maybe a smile. His second, Cora, turns and sees them, offering a small wave. She looked just at ease as Alec did, but Sara knew for a fact that Cora was nervous.

“There you are.” He says, “Everything squared away?”

Scott speaks first, “Yeah, our whole lives crammed into a tiny box.”

“Which we ourselves soon will be,” Sara adds solemnly, which draws silence for a moment, until Scott snorts and she laughs, “But, yeah. We’re good.”

“Good. Loading starts in twenty.”

Another twist in her stomach. This was it, _really_ it.

“I’ll see you on the other side, sir.” Cora inclines her head, clasps Sara once on the arm, and walks off, giving them a moment alone. Not that they really needed it, Alec wasn’t known for his-

“You two look tired.” Alec taps under Scott’s chin with the side of his finger. Then he sniffs, “Why do you smell like-”

“Anyways, dad, you said you needed to see us?”

Alec squints for a moment, but decides to let it go, “Okay. Well, what I’m about to tell you, you can never tell anyone else.”

He checks over their shoulders, to verify that they’re alone, and when he doesn’t see anyone, he leans into them. It was out of character for him to be so...he almost sounded giddy? She and Scott, like mirrors, lean in together, on either side of their dad.

“Well?”

Alec suddenly whips his arms around their neck, pulling them into a hug. Well, pulling Sara, Scott was just leaning another direction. She hated being short, damn them for being tall, those freaks. She laughs, though, when her father kisses her temple. His beard was still stubbly, and it itched.

“Just that.” Alec said, releasing them just as suddenly.

Sara shrugs, “Well no one would believe us, anyways.”

That was an understatement. Hey, remember that guy, Alec Ryder, who ruined not only his life, but the lives of his family, by doing hella illegal AI research? Oh, the human Pathfinder and one of the founders of the Initiative? The creator of SAM? That guy? Yeah he just showed some emotion that wasn’t disinterest, was even affectionate toward his children.

The thought was unfair, but, it was there anyways.

“We’ll need to head down to get prepped.”

* * *

 

The cryopods are shiny and chrome, with polished edges and, while probably not necessary, comfortable interior. A small window on one side, to look in, or perhaps to look out. Sara didn’t know how it worked- she’d asked Scott several times, but his explanations always went over her head. All she knew was that was either where she was going to travel the universe, or die trying.

She and Scott hold hands the entire time, fingers intertwined like they always were. They’d only been apart for a year, and it had been _awful_ being away from him. He’d had just as hard a time, too. They were probably unhealthily codependent, by some standards, but he was the only person she trusted completely, with everything.There had been a time where it had really only been them, and the feeling stuck. If he had wanted to stay, she would have stayed.

“Ready?”

“Just one last thing.” Sara says, pulling a small tube from her pocket. She opens it and twists, her favorite lipstick, an electric purple that she wore often. There wasn’t much left, though, so this was probably it. Sara applies a little bit too much, and goes to her father.

She pulls him down, much to his surprise, and kisses his cheek, hard enough to leave a stamp. She reapplies and does the same to Scott, who looks like he’s trying not to cry.

“Just in case you guys wake up first, so you won’t be without me.” She says, when she gets a few odd looks. Scott does cry, then, and she sucks in a breath. Why was this so hard? Everything was going to be fine. They’d done thousands of checks and tests. It was going to be alright. Right?

She hugs Scott tightly, and he crushes her right back, kissing her hair and then stepping away. They move to stand in front of their pods, which open with an uninviting hiss. She takes one last look at the Milky Way, and sighs. _So long_ , she thinks, _goodnight moon_.

“Hey, Sara?”

“Yeah, Scott?”

“Race you to Andromeda.”


	2. Wake Up Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andromeda happens at breakneck speed, and there isn't much time to inventory when you're running for your life.

**Legacy Andromeda: Wake Up Call**

The answer to their question: Going to space tired meant waking up tired and with a headache, but with no word on what a normal, well rested wake up felt like, she had to assume it felt the same. With any luck, Scott would be just as miserable in a moment and they could commiserate on the walk up to the bridge.

She looks over to her brother’s pod and half-shouts, “You better hurry, Scott, I’m already a minute older than you, I’d hate to make it two!”

Everyone in the room chuckles, and she keeps her eyes on his pod. Any second now, and he’d pop up and argue that it didn’t count, because they’d both been alive this whole time, that consciousness definitely wasn’t the end-all-be-all of twinmenship.

They don’t get that chance to argue, though.

It happens too fast to do anything about it, to even think about what’s happening, as it’s happening. Too much went wrong too fast, and the next thing she knows is Scott’s pod is flying at her- she hears it hits the wall behind her, and then the gravity’s back on and she smashes her nose against the ground. She can hear the cartilage crunch, and feel her nose start to bleed. Ah, the first drop in Andromeda.

She stands and wipes it off, thinking about how her nose was going to be sore. One of the technicians speaks, and her heart just...stops.

“We have a problem here. It’s Scott Ryder.” 

* * *

 

She sees her father look to her left, where Scott usually stood. When Cora takes the spot, his look turns to genuine concern- she thinks- for a moment. Then he goes back to dealing with the next crisis. The planet, it’s...it’s all wrong. She can see stripes or streaks of some sort of… god, what even was that?

“But can you blame her?” Cora whispers, drawing Sara back to the argument in front of them.

Sara shakes her head, “Solid ground sounds pretty good right about now.”

But, she spoke too loud. Her dad snaps, “ _Pretty good_ , isn’t good enough.”

“Yes sir,” she responds, out of habit, out of reflex. Then she sighs, and tries to pay attention. It’s a landfall shitstorm, is what it is. And, of course, dad wants to jump in dick first. Well, that was what he’d been hired to do. So, dick first it is.

She walks back with Cora, who doesn’t speak but clearly wants to say something. Sara doesn’t invite her to talk, though. They open up their lockers in anxious silence, and she takes longer than usual to put on her armor. It’s not that she can’t do it on her own, but it’s always easier with another set of hands.

She and Scott would take turns, click click, you’re done.

She leans a helmeted forehead against Scott’s locker, “You better be awake when I get back. You get a pass this once, this doesn’t count.”

“He’s going to be okay, Sara.” Cora says from behind her, tapping her on her shoulder. Sara nods, but keeps her mouth shut.

* * *

Her dad makes some rallying speech, just before they load up, and she isn’t much paying attention until, “We’ll be down a man with Scott gone.”

After that, he steps down to talk to her, what he must think is a sympathetic look is on his face. She tries not to sigh or roll her eyes.

“I heard what happened to Scott.”

She nods, “Yeah. Six hundred years, and he oversleeps.”

“Well he never was an early riser.”

She feels a little guilty when he says it- the tone is familiar and friendly, almost even fatherly. She keeps reminding herself that she’s being unfair, but, well, Scott’s unconscious and the ship is shaking apart, and they’re loading onto shuttles to go down to a planet they can’t scan. Generally not the best wake up call.

“Stay sharp.” He tells her, running the hand he’d placed on her shoulder down to lift her hand, and gives her a squeeze. Maybe being away from the galaxy her mother died in had helped him soften, or maybe it was just the after effects of defrosting.

She shoots him a small smile, and tries to put herself back together. She’s a recon specialist, and that’s what people need right now. They don’t need an anxious sister or resentful daughter tripping up.

She climbs into the beta shuttle and checks her weapon, making sure the safety was on, that it was clean, things she would have done if she’d had proper time to do earlier. She meets Liam, who seems pleasant enough, but the opinion forming stops dead when the shuttle rips in half.

* * *

 She tries to scream, but once her faceplate has a crack, breathing becomes difficult. A quick and desperate spray of omni-gel seals the crack, but depletes her reserve. She’d have to get more on the ship, if they ever got back. _When_ they got back.

She takes her time sitting up, slow, so she doesn’t jar anything that might be injured. It doesn’t feel like anything has been pulled, but she’d be sore tomorrow. She clicks her comms a couple times, trying to signal out. But no one responds. Probably cracked it when she landed.

The world around her is full of strange, colorful flora, with a good view to boot, if you didn’t mind killer lightning and- floating rocks? God, what the hell was this place? She takes a few scans, hoping that some simple answers might calm her down. Ground yourself, start small.

“SAM, what do you make of these?” Sara tries to read through it, but botany was not her strong suit. Aside from the chemical readout- which meant nothing to her- there wasn’t much to do until the AI answered. “SAM?”

“He’s offline. Think the storm must have cut connection or something.”

Bad.

Sara whipped around, biotics flaring before she registered who was speaking. Liam! He didn’t look much worse for wear, as far as she could see. No rips in his armor, no cracks in his helmet.

“Hey! Are you alright?”

Liam nods, “Bit of a rough landing.”

“Have you heard from anyone else?”

“Comms are off, too.” Liam explains. So, not just a malfunction because she cracked her helmet. Worse.

“And the others?”

“You’re the first I’ve found. Glad you’re okay.”

Worst.

“We should look around, see if we can find- the other shuttle.” She almost said _my dad_. We need to find my dad. Except, well. Chances were he was fine, and that he’d run off and left the shuttle with Cora.

“Alright. We’re burning starlight.”

* * *

 They climb and trudge and crawl and jump their way through Habitat 7, until they find Fisher surrounded by aliens. Well, technically they could be the native species, which made the Initiative the aliens, of course.

She and Liam bend down, and he whispers, “What do we do?”

A peek over the rock tells her everything she needed to know- aggression was clear across galaxies, and they weren’t exactly broadcasting a friendly vibe. Their weapons were aimed at Fisher, and waiting wasn’t going to be an option.

She stands up and yells, “Hey! We’re here peaceful-”

Her shield is up before their first shot hits. Liam responds in kind, and she throws herself over the rock she’d been using for cover. They fire at her as she runs, and her shield fizzles. Her shields aren’t made for so much direct damage. She throws herself in front of Fisher, and tosses a biotic bubble out- this was stronger than her own shields, but she could tell it was weaker than normal. Side effect of stasis, maybe. She’d have to bring it up to Harry later.

“Can you shoot?” she yells over her shoulder, watching these aliens start at her biotics. New, then, didn’t have them. Good.

“I’m out-”

“Take mine.”

Her shields click back on. Better.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him struggling to reach her, and so she takes a few steps back so she can look at him. It’s only a glance, but his leg is bent so awkwardly it had to be broken. No use, had to move him.

Liam drops one of them, and the other has refocused on him. Gonna have to do it now.

“I’m going to pick you up and carry you, okay? Going to have to drop the barrier, can’t let Liam fight these guys on his own.”

A terse nod, and she drops her barrier, and picks him up by the armpits. He’s heavier than she originally guessed, but there isn’t time to whine. Her shields are already dropping. She gets him behind a crate- shoots a quick apology after he cries out in pain- and pulls her pistol out to shoot.

The second one drops quickly under two angles of fire. She moves to scan their bodies. She doesn’t understand exactly what she’s reading. It looked like multiple different sets of DNA, all mixed in. Again, did not study xenobiology. She was really regretting her choices of study right about now. She’d skipped those in favor of anthropological classes, fat lot of good they were doing her.

“Where are the others?” Liam asked gently, bending to take a look at Fisher’s leg.

Fisher takes a deep breath, “They went to look for help. Couldn’t keep up with them, obviously, so, I stayed here.”

“Okay. Here, found this.” Sara says, handing him a gun and a few clips, “In case any more of those things come back. We’ve got to find everyone else.”

Fisher gives a nod, but she can see the despair forming in his eyes. Being left behind was no fun at all, especially when trapped on a hostile alien world where even the planet wanted to kill you. She squeezes his shoulder, and then they move on.

* * *

 “They just _shot_ him.”

Sara kicks at a corpse, “I should have been faster.”

“Nothing we could have done. C’mon, let’s keep this from happening again.”

She spares a glance back at Kirkland, and pushes the emotions to the side. Not now, Sara.

* * *

 

 “Is it too soon to say I absolutely hate this planet?”

Lightning crashes two feet behind her, and blows a new crater in the ground. She runs a little faster, and makes it inside the building just after Liam. She pressed the door control button with a little more force than strictly necessary.

“No, I was thinking it the moment our shuttle ripped in two. Glad I’m not alone.”

They share a brief laugh, but then turn their attention to the room in front of them. It’s pitch black, so Sara clicks her helmet light on.

It’s a stark silver, compared to all the other technology they had seen while running here. Did it belong to those ugly sons of bitches? She doubted it, this was just...too clean. She tries the door right next to the entrance, but it’s locked.

They pick their way through the room, stumbling in the dark, fruitlessly scanning everything. Scott would have known what these readouts said. She redirects her thoughts before she spirals any further. Despondency would do no one any good.

“Hey, this one has a switch.” Sara says, just before flicking it.

“What are you-?”

The machine starts to power up, and it doesn’t sound great. In fact, it sounds like it’s about to explode. She pulls Liam back behind the wall and pops a barrier around them. A few more anxious seconds tick by, and then, suddenly, the lights flicker on.

“Oh. Hey. Power.”

“You could have just blown us up.” Liam says simply, but doesn’t sound too put out about it.

Sara shrugs, “Sometimes you just gotta, ya know?”

“Is that your recon specialist training talking, or your Ryder adrenaline fiend?”

“Maybe both? I’m  curious, is all, and-”

“That door is open!”

So it was. She took point and walked through, gun raised. She mentally tallied the number of shots left and how many clips she had- seven, three- and decided to try and stick to biotics for now.

The room that opened up explained a lot, really. There were two distinct types of technology, one of which looked like the rest of the building, and one felt more crude and out of place. So, they’re aliens here, too. That helped. It looked like they were trying to get through the door at the back.

Was that… a dead alien?

She starts to bend down, when she hears something moving behind her. She turns in time to miss a red bolt of energy that would have seriously injured her shoulder. Liam fires off a few shots, and Sara runs back enough to throw out a biotic _lance_ , which pierces the robot and it starts to fall to it’s knees. Another shot from Liam has the light blinking out of it’s...face?

“So, just to keep things organized: This planet has deadly weather, floating rocks, ugly aliens, invisible dogs, and now killer robots?”

“Looks that way.”

“I _hate_ this planet.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, happy Andromeda, guys, go Bioware for doing fun things. Here's to picking up the (digital) pen. Hope you enjoy! Come talk to me on tumblr! I'm ScrawledScript there, too. Yell with me.


End file.
